Spotlight on Chester's Rows

The Rows are public galleries that run uninterrupted through the front of buildings in the centre of the city of Chester. In Chester, for hundreds of years, the word ‘row’ has applied to small assemblies of shops connected by a single trade and sometimes owned by one merchant.

The original rows were built on stone undercrofts. A fire in 1278 may have served to act as a catalyst for the expansion of the Rows in the city. Many of these undercrofts are still used as commercial premises today.

The picture above shows the High Cross and the top of one side of Bridge Street. The Cross marks the centre of Chester where the four streets from the Roman fortress’s main gates - Bridge Street, Eastgate Street, Northgate Street and Watergate Street - met.

For readers familiar with Chester, in the UK, you may think of black and white timbered buildings. As Nikolaus Pevsner, the late celebrated architectural critic, wrote in The Buildings of England: Cheshire: - “Chester is not a medieval, it is a Victorian city. What deceives is the black and white. 95 per cent is Victorian..."

The nineteenth century architects responsible for the black and white revival sought to preserve the unique character of the Rows, just in a better ventilated, brighter form.

Visitors can go walk about in Chester with the Chester Revealed audio downloadable tour and hear much more about the history and development of the Rows. The audio guide is narrated by broadcaster and actor Jonathan Keeble and features a welcome to the city from David Mitchell, half of the world's only husband and wife town crying duo. To hear an audio sample featuring Jonathan please click here.

This August residents and visitors alike will be able to Roam the Rows over the four weekends in that month. For more information regarding the event take a look at the Chester Performs website.

The Chester Revealed tour can also be hired from the city's Tourist Information Centre, in the Town Hall, on Northgate Street. Visitors hiring the tour will receive a copy of the tour plan, digital stereo neckphones and an MP3 player pre-loaded with the tour.